Ski brakes can be seen in commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,188,043 and 4,036,509 and in the references of other applications that are cited therein, as well as from copending and commonly owned application Ser. No. 072,626 filed Sept. 5, 1979 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,434) and in the references and other applications cited therein.
A typical ski brake has a support that is secured to the ski and constitutes part of the ski binding, and a brake element that is pivotal on the support about a brake-element axis between a skiing or rest position generally parallel to the ski and lying wholly above the lower surface thereof and a braking position extending downwardly past and transverse to the lower surface of the ski. Means is provided, normally in the form of some kind of spring arrangement, that biases the brake element into the braking position, and that is loaded when the ski boot is properly secured to the ski to automatically move the brake element into the skiing or rest position. When the ski boot becomes disconnected this biasing means automatically pivots the brake element into the braking position so that it will dig into the snow underneath the ski and prevent it from running away. Such a device can therefore effectively prevent a ski that becomes accidentally detached from the skier from sliding at high speed down the slope. As such a runaway ski is a serious safety problem on a crowded ski slope many ski slope rules request all skiers to have such ski brakes, as serious injuries have resulted from runaway skis.
Although many versions of ski brakes exist on the market, the item can nonetheless be substantially improved on. The conditions under which ski brakes are used--snow and ice--militate against reliable operation of any complex mechanism. It is essential that the mechanism functions even under these adverse conditions.
Another problem with the known ski brakes is that the mechanism is not very robust, so that it is possible for the braking element to be bent back from the braking position, thereby becoming ineffective. This can occur if the skier's boot becomes detached from the ski while moving at high speed, as the various parts of the ski-brake mechanism are normally not robust enough to absorb substantial shock.